On November 7, 2021, Associate Professor Li Li from Department of Ophthalmology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) was invited to deliver a 15-min keynote speech entitled Comparison of the ocular microbiomes of dry eye patients with and without autoimmune disease at Asia Dry Eye Summit 2021. This study was supported by clinical research project of Clinical Research Center of our hospital. Relevant academic results have been published in international journals.

Asia Dry Eye Society is the most influential academic organization in the field of dry eye throughout Asia, and it is also an international academic organization with significant influence in the field of dry eye. At present, Asia Dry Eye Society only includes approximately 100 members, who are outstanding dry eye practitioners from 14 countries and regions in Asia. Asia Dry Eye Summit is a closed meeting. Unique meeting pattern and academic quality have established its own characteristics and influence, and formulated and published the consensus on the definition, classification, diagnosis and treatment of dry eye. Due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, Asia Dry Eye Summit 2021 was held online. During the Young Doctors’ Session, Associate Professor Li Li along with other 7 young dry eye experts from China, Singapore, Japan and South Korea in Asia were invited to give academic lectures. Young experts from different countries introduced the latest research progress on dry eye in their respective fields.

Under the leadership of Director Pei Cheng, Department of Ophthalmology of our hospital has set up a dry eye studio according to the changes of disease spectrum to meet the urgent needs of patients. In the field of dry eye, the department has received 1 National Natural Science Foundation of China, 2 key scientific and technological projects of Shaanxi province, and published 4 articles in SCI-indexed journals. After the evaluation of software and hardware in July, 2021, it was approved as Dry Eye Demonstration and Guidance Center of Shaanxi Province for the standardized construction of national dry eye diagnosis and treatment center, which signifies a new stage of diagnosis and treatment of dry eye in our hospital.